A Lowell native shares his agonizing decision to quit treatment for terminal cancer

David Beaulieu heard the news from his doctors at the end of June. The cancer had spread to his lymph nodes.

The doctors suggested an aggressive chemotherapy treatment of a five-drug cocktail that would likely wreak havoc on 50-year-old David's body.

The illness attacking David's pancreas since November 2014 had been treated with chemo and radiation in 2015. Doctors hadn't been able to touch the cancer in his kidney yet. Blood tests would come back negative -- a good thing -- but then the cancer would be back again.

Should he try the chemo that had a chance of debilitating side effects, but may buy him a few more months?

Or should he stop treatment?

David picked up the phone to call Rosie.

Above: Lowell native David Beaulieu had an agonizing decision to make: continue intensive chemotherapy which might extend his life a few more months, but severely impact the quality of that life or stop treatment on his terminal cancer. He chose the latter, wishing to enjoy whatever time he has left with his new wife, Rosanna Beaulieu, who has stuck by him. He was diagnosed just a few months after they met. Below: The couple relaxes at their home in Salem. SUN photos/JOHN LOVE

He couldn't make the decision without his wife. Rosie told him to try one round of chemo, but if the side effects were too excruciating, it was time to stop treatment.

***

David Beaulieu and Rosanna Velez Sanchez had their first marriages at about the same time, in the late 1980s. His lasted close to 20 years; hers, not as long. She spent her time after the divorce working and raising her son, Joshua.

It seemed like time to explore dating again.

"I just had a moment where I said, you know, I'm going to try a dating website, let's see what happens, what do I have to lose?" David said.

Rosie had the same thought. At the same time, they both set up profiles on Match.com.

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Maybe it was just a coincidence, but maybe fate.

David, a Lowell native, said he always shows up early. On Aug. 24, 2014, he was running late.

He picked up the phone to call Rosie.

David told Rosie he'd be 20 minutes late to their date at the Starbucks in downtown Salem, Mass., where she lives. He pulled into the parking lot right on the dot.

Had he been just a few minutes later, Rosie would have left.

Rosie's glowing smile instantly stole David's heart when they met at the door, he said.

David Beaulieu shares a smooch with his wife, Rosanna, at their Salem home.
SUN/JOHN LOVE

"The conversation, it just never stopped. There was never that moment where both of us stopped and looked at each other and ran out of things to say," he said.

The nerves of going out with someone she had met online withered away.

"The whole time he looked very sincere," Rosie said. "It was something about the way he was looking, his eyes, that made me comfortable."

Eyes fixed on one another, four hours had passed before they even realized it.

***

In June 2014, David had heartburn.

Over-the-counter treatments and a trip to his primary-care doctor followed. Soon his cabinet was filled: Tums, Rolaids, all kinds of antacids.

He had been healthy all his life.

Though cancer ran in his family -- relatives had it in their colon, breast, liver, and lung -- such a diagnosis is news no one ever expects to receive.

David said he had a CAT scan at Lowell General Hospital on Nov. 4, 2014, discovering a tumor in his kidney and a blockage in his bowel. Surgery came on Nov. 21, an eight-hour procedure called a whipple performed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, which removed the head of his pancreas, his gallbladder, and part of his intestines.

The word "cancer" didn't come out until his first follow-up visit with the surgeon, he said.

David Beaulieu just moved to Salem after spending his whole life in Lowell to live with his new wife Rosanna Beaulieu who has stood by him throughout his cancer battle. "Thank God for Rosie," he says. The couple met on Match.com.
SUN/JOHN LOVE

"She said 'cancer' and it went right over my head," David recalled. "I mean, not over my head but to the point where you just get kind of numb, didn't comprehend it as well as I would have liked to."

He picked up the phone to call Rosie. She came to Boston.

David said to her: Listen, I have a gut feeling this is serious ... You're probably not much for thrill rides. This is definitely going to be one. I would understand completely if you just wanted to walk away from this, if this is not for you, or maybe just take a back seat for a while.

He said he'll never forget the look on Rosie's face.

"I remember calling my mother and saying, 'How can I leave him? I have no heart to do that,'" she said.

David and Rosanna Beaulieu enjoy a walk near their Salem home. She has been with him every step of his terminal cancer journey since just meeting him a few months before his diagnosis.
SUN/JOHN LOVE

David was scanning the diamonds at Barmakian Jewelers in Nashua, telling the employee behind the counter about his whirlwind of a love story.

David kept the ring in his drawer, planning to surprise Rosie with a proposal during a trip to Florida the next month for her birthday.

But on Feb. 21, 2015, after a benefit at the Lowell Elks Lodge to raise money for his treatments, his plans sped up.

Carrying two glasses of rum and orange juice up the stairs of his Pawtucketville apartment, David felt an impromptu proposal coming on.

An emotional Rosie, surprised and excited, said yes.

***

In his fourth hour of chemo on July 7, David's muscles started to spasm. His jaw locked up, and pain seared through his stomach.

This was the one round of chemo he promised Rosie he would try during their phone call. It wasn't his first. David had a smaller dose in 2015, but this more potent kind was what doctors were recommending now.

David knew he couldn't do it.

"If I would know that the chemo and the radiation was going to save his life, I would be the first one insisting and trying to convince you to go through it," said Rosie, a gem-studded necklace in the shape of a cross sitting in between her collarbones as she looked at her husband.

The chemo won't save him. It may buy David a few more months, but his symptoms won't get any better.

"I don't want the last memory of me being 100 pounds, laying in bed with the tubes," David said.

It is tough for Rosie, who put her left hand on David's, wedding rings almost touching. But she respects his choice, and would rather see him keep his quality of life.

David says online research has made him estimate that without treatment he'll have 11 months. But they'll be months where he's mobile and able, not hooked up to sickening medication. Months where he can be with Rosie. The two, both 50 years old, are camping at Old Orchard Beach this weekend, have a trip to New York to see Kenny Chesney coming up, and are vacationing in Punta Cana after Thanksgiving.

"I've been waiting for this wonderful guy for so long, and I remember thinking, and I told my mother, you know what, it doesn't matter when God decides to take him," Rosie said. "I just knew that I needed to be with him."

***

At home, David cooks dinner and Rosie does the laundry.

They sit at the dinner table, gazing at each other without breaking eye contact, romance still as fresh as on that first date at Starbucks.

David moved into Rosie's Salem, Mass., apartment in June 2015. They married Aug. 29, five days after the first anniversary of their first date.

On Monday, Rosie, with youthful, flawless skin and an impeccable French manicure, egged her husband on, asking him to tell all the little stories that make up their relationship.

David, graying hair and in a "Boston Strong" T-shirt of the same color, happily obliged.

The two have never been in a fight, even when they can't agree on what movie to watch. Rosie makes silly jokes and laughs to keep David's spirits up. He joins her at church, a Catholic Mass David can't understand because it's in Spanish.

Faith has been good to them, as has their support system, which includes Rosie's family, David's siblings, his son, his ex-wife, and friends.

His wife is his rock.

"Thank God for Rosie," he said.

***

Rosie thinks she hit the jackpot. So does David.

Even if he does have only 11 months, David says he doesn't feel cheated. The last two years have brought him some of the best moments of his life.

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